Home >> Science & Nature >> Animals & Science

What Bird in the Northeast Makes a Siren Sound?

The twitter of birds coming from trees and bushes is a sound that many people are used to hearing. These bird songs can even allow some listeners to identify the type of bird by the song alone. What a listener may not expect is to suddenly hear the sound of car alarms, ambulance sirens and cell phones, coming from those very trees. In the Northeast of the United State there are a few common birds capable of producing these sounds.

Species
- The most common bird species in the Northeast that is a skilled mimic is the northern mockingbird. This bird can be found all throughout most of North America. In most of the Northeast they can be found year round, though some of the more northern regions may see them only during the summer. Another skilled mimic, though less common, is the brown thrasher, which can be found in the Northeast only during the summer. Additionally, the grey catbird resides in most of the Northeast and, while not as skilled a mimic as the other two, is still capable of copying man-made sounds.
Mimicry
- Songbirds typically learn their calls when they are very young from other birds of the same species. Mockingbirds and other mimics are able to learn new songs throughout their lifetime, picking them up from the surrounding environment and adding them to their repertoire. Birds in urban environments are often exposed to different man-made sounds that they can replicate, such as car alarms and sirens. The mockingbird and the catbird can develop well over 100 different songs, while the brown thrasher can learn and repeat 2,000 over the course of its life.
Purpose
- The reason that some birds mimic the sounds that they hear in their environment is not entirely clear. The commonly held theory is that females prefer mates with the largest repertoire. The larger repertoire might indicate that the male has lived longer and has access to more resources, thus has traits better suited for longevity and survival. This theory, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is supported by a study on Edwards Plateau in Texas, which showed that mockingbirds with the largest repertoires also had the largest territories.
Around the World
- There are other birds around the world that are capable of mimicry and learning man-made sounds. Some of the most skilled of these are the sterling, the parrot and the Australian lyrebird. The lyrebird especially can produce almost perfect recreations of many of the sounds it hears in its environment, including chainsaws and camera clicks. The lyrebird has a long life span, and some of the sounds that it reproduces may have been originally heard by the bird several decades ago.

Animals & Science